BASEBALL
			12.29.04 Is George Steinbrenner Evil? A year ago, after Boston failed in their attempt to trade for Alex Rodriguez, George Steinbrenner and the Yankees swooped in and consummated a trade that brought A-Rod to the Bronx.  In frustration that they lost out in the A-Rod sweepstakes to their bitter rival, the Red Sox referred to George and the Yankees as the 'Evil Empire.'  It was catchy and, predictably, the media latched onto the name, which hung around all year.  Never mind that the Red Sox had the second highest payroll in all of baseball and were only slightly less guilty of the exact same conduct they complained of from the Yankees - the public, and especially the media, liked the imagery of the Boston Red Sox, the loveable crew that called themselves idiots and never cut their hair, versus the New York Yankees, the big money, hired guns that had strict rules about the length of their hair.  Oh, it made for great drama, regardless of how inaccurate it all was. But, the Red Sox aren't the only ones that complain about the Yankees and George Steinbrenner.  Ask most fans that support small market teams who is to blame for the woes of baseball and they will tell you that it's Steinbrenner and the Yankees.  So what is so evil about the man and his team?  Well, the argument goes, they spend so much more money on talent than anyone else that it isn't fair to the teams that can't afford the same payroll.  The Yankees can afford to make management mistakes that other teams can't, because they can spend their way out of their mistakes.  The Yankees paid Jason Giambi an insane amount of money last season and most of the year he was on the bench, injured and sick.  Just about any other team wouldn't be able to survive a problem like that, but the Yankees won their division with 101 wins in the regular season and were a handful of outs away from the World Series.  Take the New York Mets, for example, and look at the albatross that Mo Vaughn's contract has been for them.  The Yankees can survive those types of things that other teams can't. However, what has Steinbrenner and the Yankees done that makes them evil?  Isn't George really just doing what every fan would want their owner to do?  Steinbrenner could very easily make decisions based on his personal finances and he'd be a lot richer, while still fielding a competitive team.  Every dollar that isn't spent on payroll just goes into George's pocket, so he could decide to have a payroll of $100 million dollars, which would still be in the top 5 or so in all of baseball, and he'd be able to bank close to $100 million dollars in his personal account.   But we don't want that, do we?  Don't we want owners that will do everything possible under the structure of the rules to win?  That's exactly what the Yankees do.  They aren't breaking any rules by their spending, they are merely trying to put the best possible team on the field.  What is evil about that?  Personally I think guys like Mike Brown of the NFL's Cincinnati Bengals and Donald Sterling of the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers, or Carl Pohlad of MLB's Minnesota Twins are much more "evil" because they are content with putting non-competitive teams on the field/court in order to line their pockets with revenues [note: the Twins have actually been very competitive in recent years in spite of Carl Pohlad's shenanigans]. If you have a problem with baseball's economic situation, complain about the system, not the Yankees.  The system creates competitive imbalance and is unfair [I have heard some argue that life isn't fair and fair isn't really the ideal we should strive for, but without fair the sport isn't very sporting, is it?].  I am all for changing the system, but I think much of the public's outrage is misdirected at George Steinbrenner and the Yankees.  But it sure makes for good drama when we can set up a villain and an underdog to root for.
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